Cali rider
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In June, Lefty and I took a 5 day trip from California through Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Below is a review of what we covered. An overview of the route with Google maps is here: Buena Park, CA to Buena Park, CA - Google Maps There are pictures that relate to the trip here: Southwest ride 2012 pictures by JohnFollett - Photobucket
• Day 1: Meet in Barstow. Quite warm, just the beginning. Full hard luggage, tank bag and no backpack. Dull and boring pass on I-40 from Barstow to Needles. Fuel mileage was a bit low. About 110°. Dinner and early to bed as we need to beat the heat the next day.
Lefty comment:I was lucky enough to start the day with deserted twisties with a detour down Highway 25 past Pinnacles and up Hwy 198 to Coalinga before hoofing it down Hwy. 5 to Bakersfield (110º in traffic) to fuel up and let Cali know that it was time hit the road to meet me in Barstow. We both arrived in Barstow within 5 minutes of each other after traveling approx. 126 miles each from different directions!
• Day 2: Needles to Kingman, breakfast at Cracker Barrel, required for at least one meal during any road trip! Terrible MPG, realize I have to tuck in to have a prayer getting to some of the more remote fuel spots later in the trip. Continue on I-40 to Williams and the gateway to the Grand Canyon. Fuel mileage has now improved and will stay between 46 and 63 MPG the rest of the trip. Approaching Main entrance to Grand Canyon, sh1t loads of tourists (including us!) Avoided the Village and headed east to Watchtower. Lots of bodies everywhere, and honestly a bit disappointing (my 3rd trip to G.C. in 5 years). I don’t want to sound pretentious about this as it is still one of the seven natural wonders of the world, but from the seat of a motorcycle on a hot Sunday in the middle of tourist season I was not enjoying the moment.
We proceeded out the east gate of the South Rim towards Tuba City. Lots of long stretches of canyons, grades and plateaus, the scenery always changes and is never dull. Continued to the small town of Kayenta, then turned north onto US 163. This is important as this road travels through the heart of the famous Monument Valley. Very difficult to give a unique description to this 64 mile stretch of road for it has been well traveled and documented by many others. In a single word: captivating. Must be seen in person to fully appreciate to magnitude of these formations and the distances that they cover.
After passing through Monument Valley we continued to our stop for the night, Blanding Utah. A great traditional dinner at the local diner with homemade biscuits and raspberry preserves ended the day.
Lefty comment:As John has stated, Monument Valley was magnificent and it me think of all the John Wayne/ John Ford movies that were filmed there and why Monument Valley was one of John Ford's favorite places to keep returning to make movies, you just couldn't duplicate the visual images of the monuments in any Hollywood studio!
• Day 3: In the early planning stages of the trip we simply had an outline of the areas we wanted to cover. Once our respective time frames were set I began to take in information about specific parks/attractions that needed to be visited, and a path began to form that was somewhat non-negotiable. This is due to the limited roadways that traverse the landscape of southern Utah. We didn’t want to backtrack our route if possible and we had to be aware of limited fuel opportunities on some roads. All of this prelude is to setup the beginning of this day.
I chose to take a trip into Canyonlands National Park, entering from the south towards the Needles District. I had not really read much about this area, but it fit our plans and was convenient for early morning travel. About 45 miles from the highway to get to the visitor center at the end of the road, you pass through multiple cuts in the terrain and see these huge canyons and pinnacles from below as opposed to the Grand Canyon view looking down. In addition, we saw very few vehicles or people, maybe 15-20 total over the course of 2 ½ hours. Very stunning scenery, even more pronounced being on the bikes.
While at the visitor center we noticed a diorama that showed a road heading to a lookout spot. This seemed to be tangential to the highway that we were returning to so we made a point to look for it. We spotted the small sign showing Needles Overlook road and made the detour. Was it ever worth it. Basically you drive out to the edge of one of the mesas, stand on the lip and look 1500 ft straight down into the canyons below. This is an relatively obscure spot to visit and as such there were only 2 other visitors there with NO park rangers or other supervision. In other words, if you want to make the effort to get there you are responsible for your own well being, just like it should be. We stayed for 20 minutes or so but I could have stayed for much longer, this is the most engaging spot I’ve ever stood on in my life. As we continued towards our next destination I thought to myself “We could have missed this spot as it was never planned, and now I’ll never forget it!”
Continued on to Arches and Moab. Lunch at a microbrewery in Utah! Arches is best explored by hiking to the vista points. However, with the heat and previous effort earlier in the day we opted not venture far from the bikes.
From there it was on to Green River, then a long ride to Torrey. Most of it was straight and dull but the section from Hanksville to Torrey on Utah state Hwy 24 was quite technical. Nice dinner and great views from the deck looking over the river.
Lefty comment: Cali and I had discussions as to which parks we would pick as our most impressive places to visit. I chose Canyonlands as my favorite as the 45 mile ride into the visitor center was as impressive if not more so than any of the National Parks we visited on our trip. As John stated, even though our trip was pretty regimented as to the route and timing of our daily mileage, finding the detour to the Needles Overlook of Canyonlands N.P. was well worth the extra time it took to make the side trip!
• Day 4: This day’s route would be from Torrey to Escalante/Bryce Canyon/Zion NP/Vegas. It allowed us to ride Utah Hwy 12 from start to finish, rated as a top ten motorcycle road: Ten Best Motorcycle Roads Great twisty action down from Torrey to Escalante in the early morning cool air. Bryce was quite a ride back from the main road, lots to see at the tourist stops but not much while riding. From there we headed to Zion. Lots of tourists with massive RV’s, and everyone was just oblivious to other visitors. So to get our money’s worth we made three passes through Zion. The tunnel through the canyon walls was intriguing, On to Vegas, followed a very fast Harley rider through the AZ/UT border. Very high heat late in the day, 117°F. A nice dinner and a bottle of tequila later, all was well.
• Day 5: Early departure to the Hoover Dam, quick ride over the top. Headed back towards SoCal, over the back side of Big Bear, a nice lunch then home.
In summary, Utah was wonderful and more than we expected. Summer travel means high heat but all amenities are open. No problems of any kind. We used a Sena communicator system to keep in contact at all times, which helps in so many ways. We are now planning the next adventure for later this year, anyone have any suggestions?
• Day 1: Meet in Barstow. Quite warm, just the beginning. Full hard luggage, tank bag and no backpack. Dull and boring pass on I-40 from Barstow to Needles. Fuel mileage was a bit low. About 110°. Dinner and early to bed as we need to beat the heat the next day.
Lefty comment:I was lucky enough to start the day with deserted twisties with a detour down Highway 25 past Pinnacles and up Hwy 198 to Coalinga before hoofing it down Hwy. 5 to Bakersfield (110º in traffic) to fuel up and let Cali know that it was time hit the road to meet me in Barstow. We both arrived in Barstow within 5 minutes of each other after traveling approx. 126 miles each from different directions!
• Day 2: Needles to Kingman, breakfast at Cracker Barrel, required for at least one meal during any road trip! Terrible MPG, realize I have to tuck in to have a prayer getting to some of the more remote fuel spots later in the trip. Continue on I-40 to Williams and the gateway to the Grand Canyon. Fuel mileage has now improved and will stay between 46 and 63 MPG the rest of the trip. Approaching Main entrance to Grand Canyon, sh1t loads of tourists (including us!) Avoided the Village and headed east to Watchtower. Lots of bodies everywhere, and honestly a bit disappointing (my 3rd trip to G.C. in 5 years). I don’t want to sound pretentious about this as it is still one of the seven natural wonders of the world, but from the seat of a motorcycle on a hot Sunday in the middle of tourist season I was not enjoying the moment.
We proceeded out the east gate of the South Rim towards Tuba City. Lots of long stretches of canyons, grades and plateaus, the scenery always changes and is never dull. Continued to the small town of Kayenta, then turned north onto US 163. This is important as this road travels through the heart of the famous Monument Valley. Very difficult to give a unique description to this 64 mile stretch of road for it has been well traveled and documented by many others. In a single word: captivating. Must be seen in person to fully appreciate to magnitude of these formations and the distances that they cover.
After passing through Monument Valley we continued to our stop for the night, Blanding Utah. A great traditional dinner at the local diner with homemade biscuits and raspberry preserves ended the day.
Lefty comment:As John has stated, Monument Valley was magnificent and it me think of all the John Wayne/ John Ford movies that were filmed there and why Monument Valley was one of John Ford's favorite places to keep returning to make movies, you just couldn't duplicate the visual images of the monuments in any Hollywood studio!
• Day 3: In the early planning stages of the trip we simply had an outline of the areas we wanted to cover. Once our respective time frames were set I began to take in information about specific parks/attractions that needed to be visited, and a path began to form that was somewhat non-negotiable. This is due to the limited roadways that traverse the landscape of southern Utah. We didn’t want to backtrack our route if possible and we had to be aware of limited fuel opportunities on some roads. All of this prelude is to setup the beginning of this day.
I chose to take a trip into Canyonlands National Park, entering from the south towards the Needles District. I had not really read much about this area, but it fit our plans and was convenient for early morning travel. About 45 miles from the highway to get to the visitor center at the end of the road, you pass through multiple cuts in the terrain and see these huge canyons and pinnacles from below as opposed to the Grand Canyon view looking down. In addition, we saw very few vehicles or people, maybe 15-20 total over the course of 2 ½ hours. Very stunning scenery, even more pronounced being on the bikes.
While at the visitor center we noticed a diorama that showed a road heading to a lookout spot. This seemed to be tangential to the highway that we were returning to so we made a point to look for it. We spotted the small sign showing Needles Overlook road and made the detour. Was it ever worth it. Basically you drive out to the edge of one of the mesas, stand on the lip and look 1500 ft straight down into the canyons below. This is an relatively obscure spot to visit and as such there were only 2 other visitors there with NO park rangers or other supervision. In other words, if you want to make the effort to get there you are responsible for your own well being, just like it should be. We stayed for 20 minutes or so but I could have stayed for much longer, this is the most engaging spot I’ve ever stood on in my life. As we continued towards our next destination I thought to myself “We could have missed this spot as it was never planned, and now I’ll never forget it!”
Continued on to Arches and Moab. Lunch at a microbrewery in Utah! Arches is best explored by hiking to the vista points. However, with the heat and previous effort earlier in the day we opted not venture far from the bikes.
From there it was on to Green River, then a long ride to Torrey. Most of it was straight and dull but the section from Hanksville to Torrey on Utah state Hwy 24 was quite technical. Nice dinner and great views from the deck looking over the river.
Lefty comment: Cali and I had discussions as to which parks we would pick as our most impressive places to visit. I chose Canyonlands as my favorite as the 45 mile ride into the visitor center was as impressive if not more so than any of the National Parks we visited on our trip. As John stated, even though our trip was pretty regimented as to the route and timing of our daily mileage, finding the detour to the Needles Overlook of Canyonlands N.P. was well worth the extra time it took to make the side trip!
• Day 4: This day’s route would be from Torrey to Escalante/Bryce Canyon/Zion NP/Vegas. It allowed us to ride Utah Hwy 12 from start to finish, rated as a top ten motorcycle road: Ten Best Motorcycle Roads Great twisty action down from Torrey to Escalante in the early morning cool air. Bryce was quite a ride back from the main road, lots to see at the tourist stops but not much while riding. From there we headed to Zion. Lots of tourists with massive RV’s, and everyone was just oblivious to other visitors. So to get our money’s worth we made three passes through Zion. The tunnel through the canyon walls was intriguing, On to Vegas, followed a very fast Harley rider through the AZ/UT border. Very high heat late in the day, 117°F. A nice dinner and a bottle of tequila later, all was well.
• Day 5: Early departure to the Hoover Dam, quick ride over the top. Headed back towards SoCal, over the back side of Big Bear, a nice lunch then home.
In summary, Utah was wonderful and more than we expected. Summer travel means high heat but all amenities are open. No problems of any kind. We used a Sena communicator system to keep in contact at all times, which helps in so many ways. We are now planning the next adventure for later this year, anyone have any suggestions?
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I had trouble driving that section in my truck (fear of heights) wonder if I could even do it on the Fizzer...
